Three Padawans and A Master
by The Hope Lions
Summary: While on Tatooine, Ezra and Kanan discover just how many Jedi survived Order 66 after a chance encounter with Luke Skywalker, the Hero with No Fear's son.
So I watched the entire first season of Rebels yesterday, and then went to find fanfic involving Luke and Ezra meeting… I found nothing. Now I don't have time to write any of the multi-chapter things I now have ideas for, so I figured that the one-shots will have to do for now. It didn't even end up being what I hoped it would, but nothing I can do about that. Enjoy, and please, write one of these yourself. We need more!

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Luke had convinced his aunt and uncle to let him go into Anchorhead with Biggs for his fifteenth birthday, and the resulting 'accidents' (that were in no way Luke's fault) kept him from returning to the city for two months after. When his Uncle finally let up, Luke hopped on his Skyhopper, and raced to the only hub of life in the deserts of Tatooine, and Luke's social life.

Luke waited in their normal place for Biggs to come, but his friend didn't show. When the suns climbed too high in the sky for anyone to remain outside, Luke finally gave up and went to wait out the heat in the nearest dinner. It wasn't unlike any other diner on the dust ball that is Tatooine, but Luke found it more inviting to people his age. (Or kids as the rest of the world decided to dub them. Luke didn't feel like much of a kid at all anymore, but the rest of the world seemed to think he was.)

The diner's owner, Cote, liked kids, especially the kids who came from moisture farms. Cote found that those kids never just came in to Anchorhead without running at least one errand, which meant they had credits in their pockets. It was just so easy for these kids to tell their parents those vaporator parts were just a bit more expensive than they really were. It was so easy for Cote to give them crappy service and still get money because kids are used to not being treated with respect. For Cote kids like Luke were the best kind, so of course he didn't try to drive them out, as so many others did.

So Cote gave Luke a drink and a place to wait out the heat, and Luke gave Cote the credits that he had saved by haggling with that crook at the kitchenware booth. The boy finished his drink quickly, but made no move to leave. Cote didn't mind though. If it was too hot for people to leave then it was too hot for people to come in. Everyone in the diner planned on being there for a few hours, and Luke was no exception.

But while Luke might have planned on staying in the diner for hours, he did not, in fact, stay. He'd sat by the window, still hoping Biggs would show up, and noticed the two strangers as soon as they walked by the first time. There was nothing about them that drew much attention, besides them being outsiders, but Luke found himself watching them intensely. They looked as if they might be father and son, both having darker hair and skin, but they eyes differed greatly. The man's were smaller, probably teal, though Luke couldn't tell from a distance. The boy's eyes were huge, however, and Luke couldn't help but make out the distinct shade of periwinkle. Luke had never seen someone with such large, vibrant eyes, and they just drew him in.

Luke could have stared at them all day, but the two walked with a purpose through the sweltering heat, and disappeared before Luke could figure out just why he even wanted to study them all day. Luke turned back to watching his companions in the diner after the man and boy disappeared, but his mind lingered. There was a part of him still screaming to run outside and meet them, but it was too late. Anchorhead was a big city, and Luke would not find them before passing out from heat exhaustion.

Or at least, that was what he thought, until they walked by a second time. Again a voice within Luke called for him to meet them, but he was too surprised by their re-appearance to act. By the time the boy realized that them looping around had given him another chance, they were gone again and Luke was certain they would not be seen again.

And again Luke was wrong. When the pair walked by the third time, much slower as they labored to survive the heat, Luke finally jumped up and ran out the door to greet them. Obviously they were lost, and if Luke didn't invite them inside they'd die long before they found their destination.

"It's not going to cool down for a while longer!" Luke called to the pair who'd made it a little bit away from him. "You better come inside. The only ones who can survive in this heat are the sandpeople."

From the way the pair kept walking, it appeared they didn't even realize Luke was speaking to them. (Though who else he could have been speaking to, Luke didn't know. No one else was insane enough to be outside besides for the three of them.)

"Hey!" Luke called, running to catch up with them. The boy seemed to be his age, and short like him, but the pair still moved quickly down the street. They finally stopped though when Luke grabbed the boy's bag. "You're going to die of heat exhaustion if you don't get inside."

The man huffed a bit, but gave Luke a kind nod. "We'll be alright. Why don't you get back inside."

"At least let me give you directions," Luke whined, but the pair had already begun moving again, without giving Luke a chance to let go of the boy's bag. It ripped open, dropping an odd shaped thing that Luke thought might be a blaster, a few tools, and a square cube. "Oh poodo. I'm sorry," Luke muttered, his face blushing bright red under their annoyed gazes. "Let me just…"

He scrambled to help the boy pick up his things, and ended up grabbing the cube. Luke went to toss it back into the bag, but found himself studying it instead, his ears ringing. There was something about that cube…

"Hey, give that back!" the boy cried, snatching it from Luke's hands. As he did, the cube spun open, and an image appeared.

The hologram began speaking, but in the fuss the pair were making Luke couldn't hear the words. He could make out the man's face though, and found himself highly confused. He was probably fifteen years younger, but it was definitely "Ben Kenobi."

The pair shut up as the man truly looked at Luke for the first time. "What did you say?"

Luke pointed to the image, but it had changed to a man with a lightsaber. "Before, the image was Ben Kenobi. Are you looking for him because he doesn't live in Anchorhead he lives in the Wastelands…"

The boy looked ready to say something but his father(?) cut him off with a swipe of his hand. He studied Luke, eyes moving up and down, confusion and hope competing for a place on his face. "The man in this holo, you know him?"

"Yeah I know Ben, everyone does. He's a crazy old hermit, but he used to come visit us a lot. He doesn't anymore because my Uncle and him don't get along but… Why are you looking at me like that?"

The man was staring at Luke like the boy held all the suns of the galaxy in his hands. "What's your name?"

Luke considered saying it was only fair they say their names if he was going to say his, but then he remembered that he was not, in fact, a child, and only children did stupid things like that. "Luke Skywalker."

The man began to nod before the words actually processed and he looked as if his mind had just exploded. "Wait, Skywalker? Are you related to Anakin?"

"Anakin Skywalker was my father," Luke burst out, amazed that this man, this stranger who didn't even belong on Tatooine, knew his father. No one knew Luke's father except for those few who refused to speak of him. "Did you know him? Did Ben Kenobi?"

The boy, who was obviously confused, finally spoke up, "Kanan, who is Anakin Skywalker? What does he have to do with Obi-Wan Kenobi?"

"Anakin Skywalker was Obi-Wan's padawan," Kanan whispered, staring at Luke again. He looked a bit like Anakin, really, not that Kanan knew the Hero with No Fear well. Still, he'd seen plenty of pictures, and knew that Luke did look quite a bit like Anakin, but it couldn't be the same Anakin. Anakin surely had died in Order 66 unless… unless he and Kenobi had somehow gotten out together and were now living on Tatooine. It still didn't exactly explain how the Jedi Knight came to have a son within the first years of the Empire, but it was possible.

"Luke, is your father still alive? Is he with Kenobi?"

Luke shook his head, suddenly scared. He didn't know Kanan at all, and it was hot which just made everything more confusing. Was Obi-Wan Kenobi a relative of Ben? Did that mean Ben knew Luke's father as well? And what was a padawan? "No… he's gone. I don't know what you're talking about."

Kanan took a deep breath, remembering another confused teenager he'd met not all that long ago. He'd gotten through it with Ezra, he could do it again with Luke. "Luke, can you show me where Kenobi lives?"

"Kanan we're supposed to be meeting Hera…"

"Ezra, this is important. Kenobi was a true Master Jedi if he's alive…" Kanan cut the boy off again, looking to Luke who finally nodded in agreement. It was too hot to go of course, and yet there was the possibility of Luke getting answers about his father, so he had to go, even if it killed him.

The boy, Ezra, looked completely exasperated by the situation, and yet he nodded, trusting Kanan and understanding something Luke could not. Luke wanted to understand though, and so he began walking, "My speeder is this way."

They flew for a little bit, Luke's passengers fighting over something in the back while Luke considered how to even begin getting the questions he needed. Finally he decided just to be blunt, "You knew my father, didn't you? And Ben?"

Kanan turned to Luke, before nodding stiffly. Luke needed answers, but hopefully Obi-Wan would have them because Kanan surely didn't understand. "I knew of them. The world knew of them. They were the best Jedi team to ever live."

Luke considered stopping the speeder completely at that, but ended up pushing the speeder to go even faster instead. "I don't think it's my father. He wasn't a Jedi he was a pilot."

"Is Skywalker a popular name around here?" Ezra offered giving Luke a shrug when the boy shook his head. Ezra wasn't quite sure what to think of Luke. There was something about him that just sung in the Force, and yet he didn't even seem to notice. Ezra might not have known what the Force was before meeting Kanan, but he knew that most people couldn't jump like him. Luke seemed to have no idea that there was anything in the galaxy beyond sand.

"But why would my aunt and uncle lie?" Luke had that soft ring in his voice that Ezra got whenever feeling defeated, and the Padawan knew it. He moved forward in the speeder, placing a reassuring hand on Luke's shoulder. He'd been in the same place a few months before after all.

"Being a Jedi is illegal now. Being able to use to Force… it tends to get you shot at, a lot."

"You were getting shot at long before you learned to use the Force," Kanan teased gently, but when Luke actually turned his head to see them, the Jedi regretted it.

"You have the Force? Are you a Jedi too?"

"Look where you're going," Kanan and Ezra yelled as Luke almost crashed them into a dune, but the boy swerved to miss it without even turning. Ezra had done that when flying the Tie with Zeb, but Luke didn't even seem to realize he was doing it. He could probably have flown through a sandstorm, and despite what the boy believed that was not just practice.

"Yes Luke, we are Jedi," Kanan confessed hoping this wasn't actually some huge trap. The Inquisitor would do something like this, make them believe they were helping a Jedi's son while actually bringing them into a trap. But Luke already would have figured that out anyways, and it couldn't hurt. Plus, the fewer revelations they had once they got to Kenobi's the better. As it was, things surely would be confusing enough, for everyone.

Luke just accepted it with a nod, and finally turned back. "Well good, because there might be some Tusken Raiders around and I don't even have a blaster. Hopefully it's too hot for them. I know it's too hot for me." Kanan and Ezra felt much the same way, but clung to their lightsabers anyways. Should trouble come they would be ready.

They made it to Ben's place without any trouble luckily, and climbed out. Kanan and Ezra could feel the Force pulsing around, and knew Kenobi had to be there. Only a true Jedi master could achieve such control over the Force, even if they had the raw power of Luke. "Ben? Ben are you here it's Luke? Luke Skywalker?"

Kanan didn't know what he expected, perhaps the man in the holocron or on a Clone Wars battlefield, but certainly not the man who emerged. Obi-Wan plain and simple had gotten old. His beard and hair were much shorter, but completely white. His eyes drooped with time and pain, and the wrinkles this caused were everywhere. He looked older than he was.

But when he walked there was a spring in his step that was undeniable. It was almost as if the Force guided his steps, made them easier, but if the Force could be used to walk Yoda wouldn't have needed his cane. (Unless Kanan was right all along and the cane was just for whacking people.)

"Luke, do your aunt and uncle…" the man was calling when he caught sight of Ezra and Kanan. Obi-Wan's hand moved to his robe, resting on his saber, ready to defend Luke or himself should these strangers prove to be foes. "Who are you?"

Kanan stepped towards the old master, and bowed his head. "My name is Kanan Jarrus, this is my padawan Ezra. Please Master Kenobi we need your help."

If Obi-Wan didn't age another decade at the word padawan, then Tatooine had frozen over. Still, the master retained his composure, and nodded, "Come in, we must talk. You too Luke. The Force led them to you, and if the Force does not care to listen to your Uncle then neither do I."

As they all settled in, so did the awkward silence. Finally, however, Obi-Wan grabbed the crate with his Jedi things and rested it by his side. "I'll admit I did not know many of the padawans, but your name does not sound familiar. Who was your master?"

"Depa Billaba," Kanan sighed. "My name was Caleb Dune then."

Obi-Wan's eyes lit up, "I remember you. You were quite precocious. In fact you gave me the idea of using the Jedi signal to warn the Jedi away after Order 66. Any Jedi still alive can probably thank you for that."

Kanan nodded, but he did not smile. How could he feel proud to have helped so little when so much bad happened? "I did not think there were any other Jedi left."

"There are a few," Obi-Wan confirmed his eyes flickering across the room to Luke who was surprisingly quiet. (Oh how one can be so much like their father and so much not.) "Those Darth Vader and the Inquisitors have not destroyed. We must hide and hope to pass on what we know. You were wise to take on a padawan."

"What is a padawan?" It seemed to Luke like a good enough question to begin with, but he felt very stupid after doing so. Even Ezra, who was his own age, knew, but Luke did not. He knew nothing about the Jedi except that they had incredible powers and that they were all dead. Luke could only hope that the former proved to be true even if the latter was not.

Obi-Wan, however, did not blame Luke for not knowing. He blamed himself. For so long he'd been trying to protect Luke that he'd forgotten the original mission of training Luke to defeat Vader. He and Leia were their only hope, and Leia certainly wasn't receiving training on Alderaan. "It is the term for a Jedi apprentice. It's the closest bond Jedi form as master and padawan often spend up to a decade together in all their actions. It is what Ezra is to Kanan, and what your father was to me."

Luke sat up more, "So it is true, what Kanan said? My father wasn't a pilot, but a Jedi."

"Oh your father was certainly a pilot," Obi-Wan remembered fondly. Sometimes he found it incredible that he could remember anything about Anakin fondly, but looking at Luke it wasn't hard. Anakin and Luke were alike. Vader and Luke were not. "But he was firstly the most promising Jedi of the age. The Clone Wars would have been lost many times if not for your father."

"But he did die? That part was true?"

The Force told Obi-Wan that lies would come back to bite him, but he couldn't tell Luke the truth. He couldn't risk Vader having that kind of hold on such a young boy. "Yes, he was the first casualty of the Empire, killed by Darth Vader two days before you were born."

Kanan Jarrus did not like a lot of things about that statement. For one, he sensed the Jedi Master wasn't telling the complete truth, which was odd in and of itself. But it was the second half that really bothered Kanan. If Anakin died before the Jedi fell and only days before Luke was born then… "He broke the code?"

"It does not matter," Obi-Wan attempted to brush off, but he could tell from the wide look in Luke and Ezra's eyes that he would not be getting off that easily. Sighing, the master explained the rule that when broken had the power to cripple the galaxy. "The Jedi were not supposed to form attachments as they could lead to the dark side."

Ezra had heard some pretty ridiculous things since beginning his Jedi training, but this was a new one. "How can love lead to the Dark Side. Love is the purest emotion out there!"

"Perhaps," Obi-Wan conceded. He'd never really understood the rule, but he knew from experience why it was necessary. "But imagine a Jedi was to marry a beautiful woman. He wants to give her everything, as any man does. Suddenly the Dark Side starts whispering to him, promising that it has the power to do anything and the Jedi turns into a Sith, desperate to give his wife the galaxy. Suddenly that pure love has been twisted into a desire for power, and the Jedi has sold his soul to rule the galaxy."

The flow of logic there didn't seem to make sense to Luke, but he felt cold anyways. There was something about the way Obi-Wan looked at Luke while he spoke that made the boy quake. "Is that what happened to my father?"

"No," Obi-Wan answered quickly, wishing Kanan had never forced this conversation. Everything Luke was learning was dangerous enough without questions about the Code which had died with the Jedi Order. "Anakin Skywalker died a Jedi. Master Yoda and I took your mother away from Coruscant before the Emperor discovered your existence. Your mother died soon after your birth, and so I took you here to your family and waited. I had always intended to train you once you were old enough, but your Uncle forbid it. So I have stayed in hiding, waiting for a message from the Force."

Ezra got Kenobi's meaning, and pled his case, "We need your help Master Kenobi. The Rebellion is finally managing to organize itself, but we need all the Jedi we can find. Ahsoka and Ezra never even finished their own training and…"

"Ahsoka Tano?" Obi-Wan interrupted, shocked to hear the name after all these years. "Anakin's padawan?"

Kanan nodded, "Yes, she and Bail Organa have organized much of the Rebellion, but we're desperate for any real help. Please Master Kenobi, join us, help us fight the Empire."

Obi-Wan was an old man who'd fought in one war already. That was not to say he didn't want to defeat the monster Palpatine, and the shell of a man Vader, but he knew what the young did not- sometimes fighting on the front lines was not the best option. "I cannot, not yet at least. Go to the planet Degobah, there you will find Grand Master Yoda. He can help the Rebellion, but for now I must remain here and train Luke."

"Me?"

"The Force is strong with you, as it was with your father," Obi-Wan answered simply, finally opening the drunk and pulling out that lightsaber and handing it to Luke. The boy studied it carefully, before igniting it. For a second Obi-Wan worried it would somehow have turned red, stained by the blood it shed, but it was the same lightsaber as Anakin used in the last day of the clone wars to save thousands. It was no more evil than Luke. "This lightsaber belonged to your father. He could want you to have it."

Something about this was not settling well with Kanan. Perhaps it was discovering the hero of the Jedi had broken the code so flagrantly, but he wasn't so sure about Anakin, or Luke, anymore. "Luke could be trained within the Rebellion, as Ezra is. Please Master Kenobi, you're our only hope."

Obi-Wan shook his head, and stood to pull Kanan aside. Once they were out of earshot of even the two teens, the old Master could speak freely. "Kanan, I am no one's hope. Luke is the only one who can defeat the Sith. Your padawan has power, it's true, and he shall aid the Rebellion greatly, but there will be no need for a Rebellion once Luke faces the Sith. It's his destiny. I must keep Luke safe and secret while he trains, it's the only way. If the Emperor was to discover Luke lives before he is ready to fight, everything will be lost." _Because he'd turn Luke as he did his father, and the Empire would be truly unstoppable._

Kanan didn't understand, and yet he could sense the sheer power of Luke. Obi-Wan was right; all the remaining Jedi combined did not match Luke. And the Sith Lord they'd met was powerful, more powerful than Kanan thought possible. Luke had the potential to be that powerful as well, but not until he trained. "When he is trained you must find the Rebellion. We need you and Luke."

"I will, now you and your Padawan must return to the Rebellion and give Bail Organa a message."

"Organa? What business do you have with him?"

"Tell him that should Luke fail Leia must be ready to defeat Vader. Ahsoka will train her, but only if he tells Snips the truth."

Kanan didn't understand one bit, but he vowed to repeat the message. His team could cause a lot of damage to the Empire. The Rebellion as a whole could fight it, but only Luke, and perhaps this Leia, could defeat it. "The message you sent out after Order 66 gave me hope that we could survive. Perhaps Luke is hope we can win."

"Yes," Obi-Wan answered, hoping he could train Luke better than he had Anakin. "Sometimes we all need a new hope."

END


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